The Paris Wife by Paula McLain

This novel is the story of Ernest Hemingway's marriage to his first wife, Hadley Richardson. I've always found reading fictionalized biographies of famous people a bit tricky. I bring along a preconceived idea of what they were like. While I'm a fan of Hemingway's writing, I've always suspected he was a overweening braggart to his friends. This book did nothing to change my mind. Written from Hadley's point of view, the novel has a melancholy tone, the final disaster hovering up ahead and coloring her memories. She appears incredibly placid and passive, with no life of her own and willing to accept anything to keep her marriage intact. I had to remind myself that she was of a generation that felt this was woman's proper role. The author does a good job of setting the place and lifestyle of the Hemingways and their friends. I enjoyed reading the book but think it would appeal mostly to fan's of Hemingway.

A Call From Jersey by P. F. Kluge

Kluge has taken an old theme, immigrants coming in search of the American Dream, and made it fresh and new. Two brothers, Heinz and Hans Greifinger, immigrate from Germany in the early 20s. The story is narrated alternately by Hans and his son, George. Hans describes his early days in New York's German town among immigrants who have come for a new life, but need their familiar language and food around them, and their conflicted feelings as the second world war approaches. George, grown up and a second rate travel writer, has no interest in hearing those early stories and feels no connection with his father. Hans has discovered the America he was looking for but then then the changes in society leave him behind. George's work involves traveling to cities his readers dream of visiting and finds nothing. The two take a road trip to Florida, looking for Heinz, and discover each other. I couldn't put this down. Masterfully written.

The Beekeeper's Apprentice by Laurie R. King

Sherlock Holmes is retired and studying honey bees in Sussex. He meets Mary Russell, a young American girl, recently orphaned and living with her aunt. He immediately sees in her a kindred spirit with a mind like his own. The novel describes the unfolding of their relationship. Being a big fan of Conan Doyle's Holmes, I was apprehensive about how well King would capture Holmes' voice and if the plotting would disappoint. I needn't have worried. Her Holmes is totally believable. There are several plot lines that unfold to reveal the main story line, Holmes' mentoring of his apprentice. There are several novels in the Mary Russell series and I look forward to reading them.

Bad Boy by Peter Robinson

Peter Robinson's Inspector Banks series has always focused as much on Banks' inner life and relationships as it did on solving the mysteries. This can be a strength or a weakness. It was one of the things I loved about this series when I first started reading them but some of the later books have been so dark, as Banks' dealt with disappointment and depression, that I found them hard to read. I think this latest book is a little different and the better for it. The book begins with Banks on vacation in San Francisco. The plot focuses on Banks' partner, Annie Cabbot, and his daughter, Tracy, and begins with a gun found by the mother of Tracy's roommate. The mother goes to the police, hoping for help from Banks, as British laws on gun possession are extremely severe. This sets off a series of events that make up the core of the mystery. The gun belongs to Jaff, a handsome charmer, drug dealer, "bad boy" who is dating the roommate and with whom Tracy is infatuated. Banks returns home to find Tracy missing and in danger. The resolution is unexpected and very satisfying. Robinson does a good job of creating secondary characters who come to life. The biggest weaknesses in the book were the parts describing Banks on vacation; most of these events were unrelated to the rest of the book. Robinson has done an amazing job of keeping the characters and stories fresh through a long series.

The Rise and Fall of Alexandria: Birthplace of the Modern Mind

By Justin Pollard and Howard Reid. This is a very readable history of one of the most important places and times in Western history. The authors are not historians; both have film backgrounds, having worked on BBC documentaries and many films. This seems to have served them well in presenting a clear and interesting description of the founding and development of Alexandria.
The city was founded in 332 BC by Alexander the Great but, although a student of Aristotle, he was primarily a soldier, and it was left to his friend and fellow-student, Ptolemy, to build the city to it's greatness. In the chaos after Alexander's death, Ptolemy sought to unify Egypt with Alexandria as it's center. He used the principles he had learned from Aristotle to design a perfect city. It was the first city ever laid out on a grid, with sections for trade, residences, and public buildings.Ptolemy also had a real reverence for books and began to build the library for which it is so famous. So many developments happened there in geometry, astronomy, mathematics,and religion that it was truly the crucible that gave us the modern world.
I highly recommend this book for a better understanding of it's place in our history.

Work Song by Ivan Doig

Several years ago, I visited Butte, Montana and had a look at the huge scar in the earth left by the Anaconda copper mine. I stood above the toxic lake, so deadly nothing can live near it, and drove through the ghost town on the hills above where the cabins of the workers stand abandoned. It was an unforgettable sight. In Work Song by Ivan Doig, the heyday of Anaconda and Butte in the early 20th century is brought to life. The central character, Morrie Morris, steps off the train in Butte, hoping to leave his previous life behind and find good paying work. Morris quickly settles in and meets a series of townspeople who draw him into the life of the town. Through two retired miners at his boarding house, he gets a look at the hard life of the miners and their families and is swept into the tensions between the union, the wobblies, and the mining company. He finds work at the public library, run by a wealthy ex-rancher, a bibliophile who buys rare books and loans them to the library, and who tells Morris not to get involved in the fight between the workers and the company.. Morris is a fascinating and complex character. He tries to avoid committing himself but finds that ultimately, he has to make a choice. Doig creates characters who deal with tragedy but keep their dignity and sense of humor. He is amazingly good at creating a sense of place. His descriptions of Butte and the land around it come to life in this book and give a real feel for the west. I would recommend this to anyone who enjoys a good story and memorable characters.

The French Blue by Richard W. Wise

In his historical novel, The French Blue, author Richard Wise tells the amazing story of Jean Baptiste Tavernier, a 17th Century traveler and gem merchant. Son of a cartographer in Paris, he becomes fascinated with gemology and leaves home at an early age to travel to Persia and India to learn about pearls, rubies, and diamonds. He eventually becomes a highly respected gem dealer, buying for Cardinal Richelieu, Louis XIV and other nobles The title refers to his greatest find, an amazing blue diamond that eventually came to be known as the Hope Diamond. Most of the novel describes Tavernier's travels though exotic lands and his dealings with merchants and royalty. Wise does an amazing job of describing the physical conditions of travel, risky at best, and the cultural environments Tavernier has to navigate. The best historical novels whisk you away to another time and place and give you a real sense of being there. Wise is a master at this. I was not familiar with this character before I read the book, and I found it very helpful that he includes an appendix which explains the fictional aspects of the story. If you like historical fiction, this book is a must read. I couldn't put it down!

Haunted Ground by Erin Hart

The first mystery by Erin Hart, Haunted Ground is set in Ireland,where archeologist Cormac Macguire and pathologist Nora Gavin are called in to investigate the uncovering of a woman's severed head. Since the bog tends to preserve tissue, the head could be hundreds of years old. Hart includes a lot of science as the two try to discover the history of the find. But this discovery unleashes new interest in a more current mystery in the town, the disappearance of the wife and child of a prominent citizen who is generally suspected of being responsible. Hart moves back and forth between the two mysteries and does a good job with both. There is also a developing personal relationship between the two scientists that is well done. She gives a good sense of place in describing the rural Irish setting. I'll definitely read her next book.

Right Foot in the Pacific, Left Foot in the Atlantic: An Adventure Across America

This is the story of David Stoess's walk across America from Los Angeles to New York City. He describes the physical difficulties of the trek but this book is primarily composed of sketches of the little towns, big cities (which he tried to avoid) and the people he encountered. He writes with a very conversational, folksy style that works well. This is probably not a book you would read from cover to cover, but it's a great book to pick up as the spirit moves you and read a couple of chapters. I enjoyed it very much.

Keeping the Promise by Donna E. Elliott

Jerry Elliott was listed as Missing In Action in Viet Nam in 1968. This book, written by his sister, is the story of her almost 40 year hunt for him. She describes how the lack of closure caused the disintegration of her family and of the callousness and deception of the government in her attempts to get information about him. She eventually joins Viet Nam Veterans Against the War, taking part in marches in Washington, DC. She makes three trips to Viet Nam searching for answers. It is hard to imagine that our government walked away from Viet Nam, leaving hundreds if not thousands of POWs there. Elliott gives a very believable explanation of why that happened. This is an interesting but ultimately very sad story. It's a good reminder that the war is never really over for those families who are left with no answers. I recommend this for anyone interested in Viet Nam history.

Amandine A Novel by Marlena De Blasi

This is De Blasi's first work of fiction although she is a food writer and has written a number of other books. It is a great start. Set in France during the few years before WWII and during the occupation, it tells the story of a young Polish girl, Amandine, born illegitimately to a wealthy young member of Polish nobility, who is placed in a French convent under the care of a young French woman, and all traces of her identity are removed. The first part of the book covers the first dozen years of her life there. Amandine is greeted with varying degrees of welcome, from love from her young governess to hatred from the abbess. The author draws very complex characters, with complicated relationships to each other, and the coming of Amandine brings these to a head.
The second part of the novel follows Amandine and Solange, her governess, as they leave the convent and head across occupied France, trying to get to Solange's village and Amandine's ultimate goal of finding her mother. It is interesting that the two have lived so isolated from normal society and village life that they seem incapable of understanding the changes that the presence of the Nazi's have brought or the dangers of war. I found myself emotionally invested in the characters and fascinated by the story. The ending was predictable but handled in a very delicate way that I appreciated. A well-told story.

Broken For You by Stephanie Kallos

Margaret Hughes has spent most of her life sealed off from others in her large home. Facing terminal cancer, she asks a waitress what she would do if she had only a year or two left to live. "I'd do what scares me the most...Do the opposite of what I've always done." Margaret decides to open her home to a boarder which introduces the other main character, Wanda, a young woman on a single-minded quest to find the lover who has dumped her. Their encounter changes their lives and a growing circle of other "loners". It is ironic that as Margaret works to create an environment to die in, she actually creates a vibrant, healthy surrogate family and meaning for her life. There are many characters in the book and lots of sub-plots that move along at a steady pace. My main criticism of the book is that there are way too many coincidences in the story and it definitely strains credulity. But I found it very engrossing and came to care about the characters.

The Seamstress by Sara Tuvel Bernstein

There are so many books written by or about the survivors of the Holocaust and all share similar elements. But each one is also unique, describing how an individual manages to survive the unimaginable. In this book, Seren (Sara) Tuvel is a young Roumanian Jewish girl, working as a seamstress in Budapest, who is arrested and taken from her home. She is transported with her sister and niece and the young daughter of a family friend and they ultimately end up in Ravensbruck, a concentration camp near Berlin. The four of them band together, led by Seren, and gain strength from each other. The reader can't help but wonder at what traits are needed for survival, not just youth and good health, but being observant and taking advantage of luck. This is a wonderful book , very moving and thought-provoking.

The Tricking of Freya by Christina Sunley

I finished this novel several days ago and have been thinking about it ever since. It is a multi-layered book with characters that stay with you. The first part of the book is related in the first person by Freya Morris, a young woman living in New York who is remembering her childhood in Connecticut with her widowed mother and the summers spent in Gimli, Canada with her Icelandic immigrant extended family. It is a family seeped in Icelandic tradition and most of their communication with the child Freya is an attempt to impart this knowledge to her. She is lectured continually about ancient family connections back to the 8th century. But there is no real communication about recent family events and relationships. Her grandmother and especially her mother's sister Birdie, fill her with legend and history. She is especially drawn to Birdie, who struggles with manic and depressive moods and has been in and out of institutions. A key element in the plot is Freya's being "tricked" into a trip to Iceland with Birdie, which creates a crucial turning point in the story. The second part of the book takes the form of a journal that Freya addresses to a cousin she believes exists and her search for her. As she attempts to unravel her mother's relationship to Birdie, she finds more and more events that were kept from her. This culminates in a second trip to Iceland where she must come to terms with her life.
Sunley spends a lot of time describing Icelandic language, culture, history, religion, and geography. At times I thought I was reading a Tour Guide to Iceland and it was a little disconcerting. But in fairness, I would have to say that this information is central to understanding the characters and their stories. I would definitely recommend this book.

The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde

Wow! I hardly know where to begin. The Eyre Affair is funny, intelligent, and above all, clever. The time is modern day England, but Fforde has created an alternative universe where the Crimean War is still being fought, international travel is through a "gravatube" through the center of the earth, and government special forces rule with an iron hand. The protagonist, Thursday Next, is a Special Ops literary detective, solving crimes such as book forgery, theft, and entering a book to change the plot. (Not only is time travel possible here, but people can enter books and alter the story). Through a series of events, Thursday is hunting the most evil man in her world, Hades Archeron. Her chase takes her into Jane Eyre with results that have a very strong impact on the ending. The book is full of so many puns and literary references that it can keep your head spinning. This is the first of a series of Thursday Next novels and a great introduction into Fforde's amazing creativity.

Shakespeare & Company by Sylvia Beach

I was anxious to read this because Beach played such an important role in the American literary community in the Paris of her time but ended up with mixed feelings about the book. The part I enjoyed most was her relationship with James Joyce and the story of the publishing of Ulysses. But most of the book was just a catalog of the people who frequented her bookshop without many personal or even professional details. So much of her commentary was of the "one of the nicest persons I've ever met" type, which she said of almost everyone.

The Zimmermann Telegram by Barbara Tuchman

I had always thought that America entered the first World War because of German u-boat attacks. That was only a part of the picture. Tuchman describes how the British Intelligence Service breaks the German code and how this affected a scheme to keep America out of the war. By early 1917, the war was at a stalemate. The English and French were exhausted and running out of money. Germany was ready to launch a massive u boat navy, attack all ships, neutral or otherwise, and win the war. They were afraid this might tip the scale of American public opinion towards war. The Germans hoped to keep America so busy dealing with revolts in Mexico and threats from Japan that they would avoid any entanglements in Europe. Even though I knew the outcome, this book had me on the edge of my seat as the plot unfolded. Tuchman brings the characters to life and helps the reader to follow the rather complicated unfolding of events. I loved this book.

The Brontes Went to Woolworths by Rachel Ferguson

Set in 1930s London, this is the story of the Carnes family, three sisters who live with their widowed mother. The eldest, Dierdre, a journalist, is the narrator. Katrine is a struggling actress and Sheil is still in the schoolroom. They are not wealthy but of an educated class and the daughters of a "gentleman". The most striking their about them is the fantasy world that weaves in and out of their everyday lives. All the members of the family share imaginary friends based on dolls, toys, and sometimes real people they have briefly encountered. They have long, ongoing discussions of the daily doings of these people, discussing them as you would old friends with whom you are in daily contact. I found this very confusing to follow at first. Interspersed with this is a seance and ghostly visitors. During a vacation in Yorkshire, the Brontes make an appearance, although frankly, I had to read this portion twice to get what was happening. When her mother is called to jury duty, Dierdre is taken with the judge, Sir Herbert Toddington, and soon "Toddy" and his wife "Lady Mildred" have joined their fantasy world. But things begin to change when the family actually meets them. The story seems to shift at this point, moving at a quicker pace, and I found my interest growing. As their friendship with the Toddingtons develops, and the Brontes return with a disturbing result, the family has to look at the effect all of this is having on the youngest daughter. Although I was off to a shaky start at the beginning of the book, I found myself increasingly caught up in the story.

Wench by Dolen Perkins-Valdez

Wench gives a fascinating look at an aspect of slavery I had never imagined. The author sets the story in a real place, Tawawa House, which was a summer resort for both Northern and Southern whites. Southern slave owners would spend the summer hunting and fishing, accompanied by one of their female slaves. This is the story of four slaves who come every year with their owners. The resort is set in Ohio, free territory, and you would have expected the slaves to run. Perkins-Valdez explores the complicated relationships of these four and what a run for freedom would mean for them. There are practical considerations, such as leaving children behind, and emotional and psychological ones as well. The most fascinating story is that of Lizzie, who lives as her owner's mistress year round and has two children with him. She tells herself that they love each other, even though he won't free her or their children. It reminded me of the "Stockholm syndrome" where kidnap victims identify with their captors. Reenie comes every year with a man she calls Sir and explains to Lizzie that he is her half-brother, both having the same father. Mawu comes from a plantation in Louisiana and Sweet from Tennessee. They are unforgettable characters that stay with you after you've finished the story. This is an amazing book that I couldn't put down.

All Over Creation by Ruth Ozeki

All Over Creation is an ambitious book. Yumi Fuller returns home to Idaho with her three children after running away 25 years earlier. She is contacted by her childhood friend, Cass, when her parents are no longer able to care for themselves. It is interesting that her relationship with her parents has frozen in time when she runs away and she hasn't really changed at all in spite of having children of her own. Her anger with her father drives all her life choices. Once she settles in on the family potato farm, the second story begins, an invasion by the Seeds of Revolution, a group of peaceful hippies fighting genetic engineering in plants.
They have come to the farm because of the writings of Yumi's father, Lloyd, and look to him as a sort of guru. The stories play out pretty much as I expected them to but the whole subplot on plant engineering was very interesting.